Hindu scriptures promote a vegetarian dietary ideal based on the concept of ahimsa, non-violence and compassion towards all beings.[1] More than 40% of Hindus follow vegetarianism.
Diet in Hindu scriptures and texts
The Vedas
Evidence from the Vedas suggests the diet of the Aryans consisted of cereals, initially barley but later dominated by rice, pulses such as māsha (urad), mudga (moong), and masūra (masoor), vegetables such as lotus roots, lotus stem, bottle gourd and milk products, mainly of cows, but also of buffaloes and goats.[2] The Vedas describe animals including bulls, horses, rams and goats being sacrificed and eaten.[3] Although cows held an elevated position in the Vedas,[4] barren cows were also sacrificed. Even then, the word aghnyā ('not to be eaten', 'inviolable') is used for cows multiple times, with some Rigvedic composers considering the whole bovine spicies inviolable.[3] Acts of animal sacrifice were not fully accepted as there were signs of unease and tension owing to the 'gory brutality of sacrificial butchery' dating back to as early as the older Vedas.[5] The earliest reference to the idea of ahimsa or non-violence to animals (pashu-ahimsa), apparently in a moral sense, is found in the Kapisthala Katha Samhita of the Yajurveda (KapS 31.11), written about the 8th century BCE.[6] The Shatapatha Brahmana contains one of the earliest statements against meat eating, and the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, has an injunction against killing 'all living entities'. Injunctions against meat-eating also appear in the Dharmasutras.[7] Steven J. Rosen suggests that meat might only have eaten as part of ritual sacrifices and not otherwise.[8]
Dharmaśāstras
According to Kane, one who is about to eat food should greet the food when it is served to him, should honour it, never speak ill, and never find fault in it.[9][10]
The Dharmasastra literature, states Patrick Olivelle, admonishes "people not to cook for themselves alone", offer it to the gods, to forefathers, to fellow human beings as hospitality and as alms to the monks and needy.[9] Olivelle claims all living beings are interdependent in matters of food and thus food must be respected, worshipped and taken with care.[9] Olivelle states that the Shastras recommend that when a person sees food, he should fold his hands, bow to it, and say a prayer of thanks.[9] This reverence for food reaches a state of extreme in the renouncer or monk traditions in Hinduism.[9] The Hindu tradition views procurement and preparation of food as necessarily a violent process, where other life forms and nature are disturbed, in part destroyed, changed and reformulated into something edible and palatable. The mendicants (sannyasin, ascetics) avoid being the initiator of this process, and therefore depend entirely on begging for food that is left over of householders.[9] In pursuit of their spiritual beliefs, states Olivelle, the "mendicants eat other people's left overs".[9] If they cannot find left overs, they seek fallen fruit or seeds left in field after harvest.[9]
The forest hermits of Hinduism, on the other hand, do not even beg for left overs.[9] Their food is wild and uncultivated. Their diet would consist mainly of fruits, roots, leaves, and anything that grows naturally in the forest.[9] They avoided stepping on plowed land, lest they hurt a seedling. They attempted to live a life that minimizes, preferably eliminates, the possibility of harm to any life form.[9]
Manusmriti
The Manusmriti discusses diet in chapter 5, where like other Hindu texts, it includes verses that strongly discourage meat eating, as well as verses where meat eating is declared appropriate in times of adversity and various circumstances, recommending that the meat in such circumstances be produced with minimal harm and suffering to the animal.[11] The verses 5.48-5.52 of Manusmriti explain the reason for avoiding meat as follows (abridged),
One can never obtain meat without causing injury to living beings... he should, therefore, abstain from meat. Reflecting on how meat is obtained and on how embodied creatures are tied up and killed, he should quit eating any kind of meat... The man who authorizes, the man who butchers, the man who slaughters, the man who buys or sells, the man who cooks, the man who serves, and the man who eats – these are all killers. There is no greater sinner than a man who, outside of an offering to gods or ancestors, wants to make his own flesh thrive at the expense of someone else's.
— Manusmriti, 5.48-5.52, translated by Patrick Olivelle[11]
In contrast, verse 5.33 of Manusmriti states that a man may eat meat in a time of adversity, verse 5.27 recommends that eating meat is okay if not eating meat may place a person's health and life at risk, while various verses such as 5.31 and 5.39 recommend that the meat be produced as a sacrifice.[11] In verses 3.267 to 3.272, Manusmriti approves of fish and meats of deer, antelope, poultry, goat, sheep, rabbit and others as part of sacrificial food. However, Manusmriti is a law book not a spritiual book. So it permits to eat meat but it doesn't promote.[12] In an exegetical analysis of Manusmriti, Patrick Olivelle states that the document shows opposing views on eating meat was common among ancient Hindus, and that underlying emerging thought on appropriate diet was driven by ethic of non-injury and spiritual thoughts about all life forms, the trend being to reduce the consumption of meat and favour a non-injurious vegetarian lifestyle.[13]
Mahabharata
Mahabharata contains numerous stories glorifying non-violence towards animals and has some of the strongest arguments against slaughter of animals—three chapters of the Epic are dedicated to the evils of meat-eating. Bhisma declares compassion to be the highest religious principle, and compares eating of animal flesh to eating the flesh of one's son. Nominally acknowledging Manu's authorisation of meat-eating in sacrificial context, Bhisma explains to Yudhiṣṭhira that "one who abstains from doing so acquires the same merit as that accrued from the performance of even a horse sacrifice" and that "those desirous of heaven perform sacrifice with seeds instead of animals". Mahabharata informs us that animal sacrifices were introducted only when people began to resort to violence in the treta yuga, a less pure and compassionate age, and were not present in the sat yuga, 'the golden age'.[14]
Tirukkuṛaḷ
Another ancient Indian text, the Tirukkuṛaḷ, originally written in the South Indian language of Tamil, states moderate diet as a virtuous lifestyle and criticizes "non-vegetarianism" in its Pulaan Maruthal (abstinence from flesh or meat) chapter, through verses 251 through 260.[15][16][17] Verse 251, for instance, questions "how can one be possessed of kindness, who, to increase his own flesh, eats the flesh of other creatures." It also says that "the wise, who are devoid of mental delusions, do not eat the severed body of other creatures" (verse 258), suggesting that "flesh is nothing but the despicable wound of a mangled body" (verse 257). It continues to say that not eating meat is a practice more sacred than the most sacred religious practices ever known (verse 259) and that only those who refrain from killing and eating the kill are worthy of veneration (verse 260). This text, written before 400 CE, and sometimes called the Tamil Veda, discusses eating habits and its role in a healthy life (Mitahara), dedicating Chapter 95 of Book II to it.[18] The Tirukkuṛaḷ states in verses 943 through 945, "eat in moderation, when you feel hungry, foods that are agreeable to your body, refraining from foods that your body finds disagreeable". Tiruvalluvar also emphasizes overeating has ill effects on health, in verse 946, as "the pleasures of health abide in the man who eats moderately. The pains of disease dwell with him who eats excessively."[18][19][20][21]
Puranas
The Puranic texts fiercely oppose violence against animals in many places despite "despite following the pattern of being constrained by the Vedic imperative to nominally accept it in sacrificial contexts". The most important Puranic text, the Bhagavata Purana goes farthest in repudiating animal sacrifice—refraining from harming all living beings is considered the highest dharma. The text states that the sin of harming animals cannot be washed away by performing "sham sacrifices", just as "mud cannot be washed away by mud". It graphically presents the horrific karmic reactions accrued from the performance of animal sacrifices—those who mercilessly cook animals and birds go to kumbhipaka and are fried in boiling oil' and those who perform sham sacrifices are themselves cut to pieces in viśasana hell. The Skanda Purana states that the sages were dismayed by animal sacrifice and considered it against dharma, claiming that sacrifice is supposed to be performed with grains and milk. It narrates that animal sacrifice was only permitted to feed the population during a famine, yet the sages did not slaughter animals even as they died of starvation. The Matsya Purana contains a dialogue between sages who disapprove of violence against animals, preferring rites involving oblations of fruits and vegetables. The text states that the negative karma accrued from violence against animals far outweighs any benefits.[22]
Contemporary diet
According to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, 44% of Hindus say they are vegetarian.[23]
See also
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References
- ^ Sen 2014, p. 1168.
- ^ Achaya 1994, p. 31–35.
- ^ a b Achaya 1994, p. 53–55.
- ^ Staples 2020, p. 38–40.
- ^ Bryant 2006, p. 195–196: "At the same time, preliminary signs of tension or unease with such slaughter are occasionally encountered even in the earlier Vedic period. As early as the Ṛgveda, sensitivity is shown toward the slaughtered beasts; for example, one hymn notes that mantras are chanted so that the animal will not feel pain and will go to heaven when sacrificed. The Sāmaveda says: "we use no sacrificial stake, we slay no victims, we worship entirely by the repetition of sacred verses." In the Taittiriīya Āraṇyaka, although prescriptions for offering a cow at a funeral procession are outlined in one place, this is contradicted a little further in the same text where it is specifically advised to release the cow in this same context, rather than kill her. Such passages hint, perhaps, at proto-tensions with the gory brutality of sacrificial butchery, and fore-run the transition between animals as objects and animals as subjects.".
- ^ Tähtinen, Unto (1976). Ahimsa. Non-Violence in Indian Tradition. London. pp. 2–3 (English translation: Schmidt p. 631). ISBN 0-09-123340-2.
- ^ Bryant 2006, p. 196–197.
- ^ Rosen 2020, p. 396.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Patrick Olivelle (1991). "From feast to fast: food and the Indian Ascetic". In Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld; Julia Leslie (eds.). Medical Literature from India, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. BRILL. pp. 17–36. ISBN 978-9004095229.
- ^ Kane, History of the Dharmaśāstras Vol. 2, p. 762
- ^ a b c Patrick Olivelle (2005), Manu's Code of Law, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195171464, pages 139-141
- ^ Patrick Olivelle (2005), Manu's Code of Law, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195171464, page 122
- ^ Patrick Olivelle (2005), Manu's Code of Law, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195171464, pages 279-280
- ^ Bryant 2006, p. 198–199.
- ^ Kamil Zvelebil (1973). The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India. BRILL Academic. pp. 156–157. ISBN 90-04-03591-5.
- ^ Krishna, Nanditha (2017). Hinduism and Nature. New Delhi: Penguin Random House. p. 264. ISBN 978-93-8732-654-5.
- ^ Meenakshi Sundaram, T. P. (1957). "Vegetarianism in Tamil Literature". 15th World Vegetarian Congress 1957. International Vegetarian Union (IVU). Retrieved 17 April 2022.
Ahimsa is the ruling principle of Indian life from the very earliest times. ... This positive spiritual attitude is easily explained to the common man in a negative way as "ahimsa" and hence this way of denoting it. Tiruvalluvar speaks of this as "kollaamai" or "non-killing."
- ^ a b Tirukkuṛaḷ see Chapter 95, Book 7
- ^ Tirukkuṛaḷ Translated by V.V.R. Aiyar, Tirupparaithurai: Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam (1998)
- ^ Sundaram, P. S. (1990). Tiruvalluvar Kural. Gurgaon: Penguin. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-14-400009-8.
- ^ "Russell Simmons on his vegan diet, Obama and Yoga". Integral Yoga Magazine. Integral Yoga Magazine. n.d. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Bryant 2006, p. 199–202.
- ^ Corichi, Manolo (8 July 2021). "Eight-in-ten Indians limit meat in their diets, and four-in-ten consider themselves vegetarian". Pew Research Center.
Bibliography
- Achaya, K. T. (1994). Indian Food: A Historical Companion. Oxford University Press.
- Bryant, Edwin (2006). "Strategies of Vedic Subversion: The Emergence of Vegetarianism in Post-Vedic India". In Waldau, Paul; Patton, Kimberly Christine (eds.). A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50997-8. OCLC 144569913.
- Gupte, B. A. (1994). Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials: With Dissertations on Origin, Folklore and Symbols. Asian Educational Services. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-81-206-0953-2.
- Rosen, Steven J. (2020). "Vaishnav Vegetarianism". In Narayanan, Vasudha (ed.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Materiality (First ed.). John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-68832-8. OCLC 1158591615.
- Sen, Colleen Taylor (2014). "Hinduism and Food". In Thompson, Paul B.; Kaplan, David M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer. ISBN 978-94-007-0929-4.
- Staples, James (2020). Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-74789-7. OCLC 1145911567.
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